A Heart So Fierce and Broken: Brigid Kemmerer (The Cursebreaker Series)

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Transition and pacing. One of the things I can say that honestly did not disappoint in this book was the pacing. Sometimes fantasy novels fall into the trap of having a lull in the middle of the story up until the end but this kept me engaged when I was reading it...even if I didn't actually like what I was reading. And the transition from book one to book two flowed super well in my opinion. The author does a great job of recapping book one without ever making it boring or redundant. Grey travels through dimensions to find girls for Rhen, so one of them might fall for him and break the curse. This causes a lot of issues for Rhen, Lia, and Grey since they are all now inevitably tied up. You’re probably thinking at this point “Well what about Harper, she was the main character of ACSDAL?” Well, she is of no use in this book. Like she was just thrown to the side so Grey and Lia Mara and Rhen could take the shine. Harper is maybe in it a couple of times and even then she only has a few speaking lines. We don’t see much of her but when we do it’s obviously important, I still just think it’s a crime that she isn’t in it very much. At the beginning of this year I read A Curse so Dark and Lonely and fell in love with this world and it's characters. As we all had prayed for - this book is in Grey's POV (whoop!!) with the alternating POV of Lia Mara. This was a 9.0/10 on CAWPILE so juuuuust got 5 stars, the only reason it wasn't a strong 5 is because of the last chapter. One of my least favourite tropes happened and just overall it wasn't satisfactory for me.

A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN | Kirkus Reviews A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN | Kirkus Reviews

I really LOVE Grey. He reminds me of Geralt from The Witcher because he's very stoic and contained but sharp and tactful when he needs to be. That combination of gentleness and wanting to do what's right mixed with absolute lethal power is so intriguing to me, so I liked it when the story focused on his development. Also, the new characters in this book were so much fun to read about. I love Lia Mara and Tycho, and even side characters from book one like Noah and Jake grew on me. Lia Mara is the firstborn daughter of Karis Luran of Syhl Shallow which is over the mountains from Emberfall. If you remember from ACSDAL, Karis Luran is the bloodthirsty Queen whose forces tried to invade Emberfall when she thought the royal family was gone and the Kingdom was at its weakest. I KNOW people do not like love triangles. Hell, I don't need love triangles in 99.998% of cases either, but this might be one of the rare ones where I would have preferred that over what we actually got. I made a moodboard for this book and was planning to write an elaborate review, but I’m so damn conflicted about this installment that I can’t say for sure how I feel about all of it. I think my definition of a sequel compare to this author’s must’ve been vastly different bcs this book was not at all what I pictured a continuation of a series would be like. After sleeping on it for almost two weeks, I think I’m just going to settle for a moderate rating. I feel like this book is an SJM Tower of Dawn sort of book, a little pointless but enjoyable to read nonetheless. after these unfortunate and unwanted changes, i had to read this book as if it were completely unconnected to ACSDAL and essentially a standalone. after doing that, after reading this story for what it is individually and not a follow up to another half, i started to enjoy this. like really enjoy this.While the first book was arguably pretty generic, it was a retelling so I couldn't really fault it. This book though was a mix-mash of every trope in the book while bringing nothing new to the table. Harper was all but eliminated from the sequel, removing the disability rep that was part of what made ACSDAL unique. I'm not a fan of the discord between Rhen and his brother. Especially not since I believe that Grey's love for Rhen had a whole lot more to do with breaking the curse in ACSDAL than Harper's had at the time. It feels kind of forced. Did so at the beginning, when I found myself wondering if it might not have been better for Grey to be honest. Unlike him, I wasn't so sure of the fate that would have awaited him in that case. And it certainly feels forced now when Karis Luran (boy, was she one dimensional btw. Same as Lilith. Interesting villains they are not .. and I say that as someone who almost always roots for the villain :/) is dead, and ☆.。.:*pacifist queen Lia Mara*・°☆ is ruling Syhl Shallow. A Heart so Fierce and Broken has been one of my most anticipated releases for 2020 following A Curse so Dark and Lonely, which remains one of my absolute favorite reads for all of 2019. I devoured that book, laughed and cried and fell oh so hard for every single character. Most of all the wonderfully fierce Harper. What we do know is what’s most important: this prince’s reign will come to an end, one way or another.” But anyways this review has gone on way too long at this point, thank you for your time, and Happy Reading Folks.

Cursebreakers Series by Brigid Kemmerer - Goodreads

After how much I loved the first book in the series, I went into A Heart So Fierce and Broken with both excitement and caution. I know it's hard to follow up a thrilling first book with an even more so second book, especially when there are amped up expectations to take into account. But I needn't have worried, because I come away having thoroughly enjoyed myself. When they are in Emberfall, Harper tries to flee but is stopped by Rhen and Grey. Grey shows Harper how to use a knife, and they start to get along. Harper tries to flee again later, but this time she gets into trouble with soldiers from Sylh Shallow. Grey and Rhen take Harper, and Freya and her kids to the Crooked Boar Inn. The atmosphere of this series really improved as well! Brigid Kemmerer clearly honed in on expanding and developing the magical aspects to this universe. So much so that I lost myself in this story for hours on end. The pacing and writing was fantastic. Getting to know more about the characters we already know was so interesting and fun, as well as meeting new ones who became very dear to me by the end. After the curse was set in place, three hundred and twenty-seven seasons later, he was the only one alive from the Royal Guard. He was the only one who survived and became the last person along with Rhen to still live in the castle. They became good friends, even though Grey had an oath to protect Rhen.Noah is his boyfriend, formerly a medical resident in a busy DC emergency room, and now the castle “healer.” I had never really paid much attention to Jacob in book one, but I loved how he and Grey become closer in this book and seeing their friendship bloom. *sniffs* It was just so damn beautiful.

A Heart so Fierce and Broken (Audio Download): Brigid A Heart so Fierce and Broken (Audio Download): Brigid

All I'm going to say about the new otp is that: Grey and Lia Mara work so well together, I cannot deal with their brand of cuteness. Their personalities compliment each other and I'm very much jealous of Lia Mara. Anyways, there is an ease to Brigid’s writing that just pulls you in, the plot itself isn’t bad at all, I think this would have been an incredible book if character decisions made sense and if there was actual depth to the characters. So I will definitely be rereading this once the book is out and in the world because I want to see if anything has changed. Genres: Fiction — Fantasy, Romance, High fantasy, Fantasy romance, Young adult, Young adult fantasyLia Mara is alright. She's likeable enough and there is nothing obviously wrong with her character imho. But she is not nearly as compelling as Harper. Occasionally she even felt like a lesser version of Harper and I'm just not here for that (I mean can we talk about the way she killed her mother? Is everyone proficient in knife throwing now or??) Mostly she's just kind of .. there and cries a lot. I cry a lot too, so no judgement, but that romance just doesn't feel genuine. I didn't even recognize Grey during 90% of their "moments" together. Writing secret little love notes like a school boy, REALLY? Errrrrr #notmygrey I really liked Lia Mara, much more than I expected. She was so genuine and I admired her tenacity. She is badass in an unexpected way. She is filled with doubt and does not have good self-esteem, but seeing her grow throughout the book, filled me with such pride. Something happens in this book that I'm sure is going to cause much uproar amongst readers. I personally thought it was brilliantly done and that the author took a huge risk. *rubs hands together* I'm really excited to see how everyone is going to react to it. Originally a relationship between prince and guard, Rhen and Grey formed a friendship because they spent so much time together fighting the curse, Rhen let himself be tortured so that Grey would be spared. However after finding out they are half-siblings, their relationship becomes more complicated.

A Heart So Fierce and Broken Quotes - Goodreads A Heart So Fierce and Broken Quotes - Goodreads

I didn't expect to like this book so much because in the first book of the series I didn't like Grey at all but now he is one of my favorite characters.Choices are never easy. There are good and bad options, but the most dangerous is to not make any choice at all.”